What Do Dreams about Murder Reveal about You and Your Life?

Published by
Janey Davies, B.A. (Hons)

What do dreams about murder mean? Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night in a panic because you’ve dreamt you have just murdered someone?

Thankfully, these types of dreams are not common, but they do have meaning.

Dream analysis is often used in psychoanalysis as a tool to understanding our subconscious thoughts, in fact, it was first pioneered by Sigmund Freud, who believed that dreams were the ‘royal road’ to the unconscious mind.

It is thought that our dreams can be a way of our subconscious thoughts coming to the surface. But obviously we are not all murderers, so what can it mean if we dream about murder?

Dreams about murder, being murdered or witnessing a murder are more often than not sending a powerful message to our consciousness.

Typically this could be:

  • Something in your life is ending or should go
  • A dramatic change is happening in your life
  • You feel hostility towards another person
  • You feel guilty about something.

Dreams about murder could also point to a release of built-up rage or anger towards a particular person in your life.  Subconsciously, you might feel like ‘ending’ the relationship but don’t know how to.

If you know the person in your dream that has been murdered but you feel indifferent about them in real life, they might represent something in your life you don’t like and want to get rid of.

If you are being murdered, you could feel betrayed by someone that is important to you.

If you watched someone else commit the murder, you might be suppressing your own feelings and anger and denying a personality trait in yourself that you don’t want to see.

It all depends on the actual dream and who was murdered.

If you were murdered

This could mean that something in yourself has to end or die. It could be a way of thinking or acting or a belief. In order for you to move on with your life and become a functioning human being, this aspect has to go.

If in your dream you struggled against your attacker, then it signifies you are not quite ready to let whatever it is you need to go just yet.

If someone you know was murdered

This could mean that you have problems with the person who was murdered and are either jealous of them or dislike them intensely. The person who was murdered could also represent an aspect of your personality that you do not like.

To understand further why this person was murdered in your dream you need to think about what they are to you in real life. What do they represent in real life and why do you want to get rid of them?

As for analysing particular aspects of dreams about murder, theorists believe that if you saw the murder taking place, you are emotionally cutting yourself off from someone important in your life.

If you were being chased by the murder, you are trying to outrun some aspect of your emotional life. And if you were the murderer, you could be feeling depressed at life and are angry at yourself.

Most psychoanalysts believe that dreams about murder signify the person moving on from some old or outdated practice or habit and trying something new. Much as the way the ‘Death’ tarot card does not mean dying, it symbolises an ending and new beginning, so does a murder dream.

Can dreams about murder imitate waking life?

However, there has been an interesting study on people that have recurring dreams about murder. Experts in dream analysis found that those who dream of committing murders are more likely to be hostile and aggressive in real life.

A new study has found those who dream of committing murder tend to be hostile and more aggressive when they are awake. When awake these dreamers were also introverted and found it hard to socialise with others.

The German study stated that dreams were often a magnification of real-life thoughts and feelings. During waking hours, people may find that they are bottling up feelings of hostility and aggression, but when they dream, these feelings are amplified into murder scenarios.

Lead researcher Professor Michael Shredl, of the Central Institute of Mental Health’s sleep laboratory in Mannheim, Germany, said that:

“Emotions in dreams can be much stronger than the emotions in waking life, if you do dream about killing, look at your aggressive emotions in waking life.”

So perhaps when you next dream of a murder you should ask yourself what is happening in your waking life and should you be worried?

References:

  1. https://www.bustle.com
  2. https://www.psychologytoday.com

View Comments

  • I had a dream where I was kidnaped with some friends and that the Kidnappers where killing our family one by one he had a wall full with our family pictures and they would end up talking them of when that person was dead, out of nowhere I have my phone and call the police 5 minutes later we get on a bus and move 30 min away from where we were , the police called me again and the Kidnapper kind of saw me so I hung up and acted like I was looking at a picture of my brother which he had already killed the only person that was still alive was my little sister and 4 other more( I saw there picture on the wall)

  • I dreamed i murdered my child's paternal grandmother. I stabbed her repeatedly, cut her throat, and hid her in the closet. My child's father is a mamas boy all means and for some reason he helped me cover it up. I'd wake up and the dream would pick back up where it left off. Over and over. The dream was so realistic. And im not an aggressive person at all in my woken state.

    • Wow mine too, it keeps picking up where it left off and it’s honestly scaring me and making me not want to go back to sleep

  • I have had multiple murderous dreams... In one recently i was a woman (but i am a man) and in this one i had today, i killed a household of family.. but they didnt die... I am a very calm person whos easy to get along with. i have no desire to kill or anything like this. these dreams paralyze me when i wake up from them. even typing this i feel weak. i wish i knew how to stop these awful dreams.

    • Look at who you are killing and why. Did you kill the family because you are trying to put off the urge to have or start one of your own for instance? Did you kill your boss because he didn't give you a raise and you are hurt by that? Once you analyze your dream and figure out what it's trying to say- the symbols not the storyline, the dreams will change. When you have recurring dreams it's a message your subconscious is trying to get across, and once you realize what the dream is truley saying symbolically, they will stop. Dreams want to get your attention and be understood when they keep repeating. Also, you can set an intention for your dreams right before bed, this will direct that nights dreams to be on that subject. This is how we influence our own dreams. Pick a problem you want solved and think about it before bed telling yourself to solve it while you sleep as you fall asleep. Your dream should relate to that topic and offer a possible solution.

  • Yes I'm very worried I have a recurring dream about my mother being murdered gruesomely, and I wake up shaking and fearful I don't know what the meaning really I'm very worried and LM scared to the core.

  • I saw a murder between two people. One of them femous political leader and another person was unknown people. What does the mean about this dream ¿????

Published by
Janey Davies, B.A. (Hons)